


Time Skips A Beat

by krysnel_nicavis



Category: Adam Lambert (Musician), American Idol RPF, Kris Allen (Musician), kradam - Fandom
Genre: Bisexuality, Death, Emotional, F/M, Introspection, Love, M/M, Mystery, One Shot, POV Male Character, POV Third Person, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-20
Updated: 2010-10-20
Packaged: 2017-10-20 20:55:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/217012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/krysnel_nicavis/pseuds/krysnel_nicavis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kris is second guessing his decision to propose to the woman he loves and receives council from a familiar stranger… Kris/Katy, implied Kradam.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time Skips A Beat

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Kradam fic. WARNINGS: implied slash, character death.

Kris Allen walked down a street in Conway, Arkansas. It was an average street. One he'd walked a thousand times before. But this was no average day. Today, Kris was contemplating something that would completely change the course of his life. Today, he was planning to ask his high school sweetheart, Katy, to marry him.

It felt like the right thing to do. They'd been together long enough that Kris felt it was the next natural and logical step to take. So why was he thinking about it so much?

It should be a done deal for him. He had the ring in his pocket, the proposal planned - location and all. Everything was ready. So why wasn't he?

He kept walking, thinking over his decision. Should he go through with his plans? Or should he wait? Was it too soon in his life? Should he finish college first? Were they even meant to be? Did he…

…did he even truly love her?

He had just turned back to head the other way, mind still uncertain, when a familiar voice spoke.

“Don’t do it, Kris.”

He stopped.

“Don’t lose what time you could have together.”

He frowned and turned back the way he’d been heading. Upon seeing the man now standing in front of him he stopped short.

The man looked very familiar. He was a bit older than Kris, maybe in his late twenties or early thirties. His brown hair was cropped short, much like Kris’ and was about the same height.

But there was something off about this man.

Something other than the bloody hand print smeared down his face and neck; as though the hand had been held tenderly to his cheek and lost the strength stay there… something other than the blood that came from the wound on his face and the tears that trailed down his cheeks.

It was something in his brown eyes, something hollow and shattered.

“Don’t do it,” the stranger shook his head sadly.

Kris found his voice. “Don’t do what?”

“Don’t regret this day,” the stranger turned and walked away.

“Who are you?” Kris called after the man, who had just turned a corner. He received no answer. Kris shook his head and turned to go back home.

He shoved his hands in his pocket and felt the ring box. He pulled it out and looked at it. It was a simple, dainty little ring with only a tiny stone set into it. Katy would love it.

The man’s voice echoed in his head: _“Don’t lose what time you could have together.”_

-o0o-

It happened in the blink of an eye.

They were smiling, and happy, and together as they had been for several, _eventful_ years. They were driving down the highway and singing along to a song on the radio – surprisingly badly, especially with all the interrupting and infectious giggles from the beauty in the passenger’s seat, but that was half the fun. The CD case had dropped and he watched as his love unlocked the passenger seatbelt to reach for it.

Then the car was bathed in light.

He swerved to avoid the oncoming car that had switched into the wrong lane, but it was too late. The oncoming car swiped the back of theirs, sending it into a wild spin. Kris slammed on the breaks, trying to stop. They were struck on the passenger side and the car rolled off the side of the road.

When it stopped Kris had a cut on his right cheek and what would be plenty of bruises on his body. He looked to the passenger seat and found himself staring at an empty chair; the door had been ripped out.

He managed to get himself out of the car before it burst into flames and started searching. He screamed into the night and looked wildly about. About forty feet from the car he finally found the one he was looking for, clinging onto life and Kris could tell the battle wouldn’t last much longer.

He knelt beside the battered body. Even in its bloody and broken state, he could still see its perfection. Every line, every curve in it had been long since committed to memory.

Memories of their life together ran through his mind. Their first meeting, the first time he saw that breathtakingly beautiful smile, the first time they held hands, their first kiss… the first time they made love… the day they got married…

“Baby, I’m here,” Kris spoke in a shaking voice. “Please, hold on.”

“I do- don’t think I c-can,” the weak voice replied before a cough caused blood to spatter the perfect, full lips. With his thumb he wiped it off and leaned in to press an almost desperate kiss to them. Both begging the one below him to stay and letting them know he understood why they could not. He poured all his heart and soul into the kiss. He pulled back and leaned his cheek into the hand that now rest against it. He stared lovingly into the pain filled eyes of the one he’d fallen so deeply in love with years ago.

“I love you, Kris,” whispered the emotion filled voice that always made his heart skip a beat one last time. The tender hand resting on his cheek slipped down his neck and dropped to the settle in the grass, leaving behind a blood-smeared print as the only proof of its contact.

Kris let his unshed tears finally escape as the one person he’d ever truly loved took their last breath.

He remembered back, all those years ago, and remembered the day that he’d planned to propose to Katy. He remembered the broken man whose cryptic words had wisely advised him.

He knew now that, somehow, someway, it had been himself that had been talking to him – his older self. And he finally understood his older self’s full meaning.

While nothing could have stopped the accident from happening, nothing could have changed his love’s fate, there was one thing he’d been able to stop from losing: time.

He leaned forward and pressed a gentle last kiss to his lost love’s still lips. Pulling back he whispered into the night:

“I love you Adam. I always will, and I’ll always cherish the time we had together.”

He held his husband’s left hand in his, the light from the flaming remains of the car glinting off their red stained wedding bands.

\- 30 -

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Note/Story Discussion:
> 
> Was reading a bunch of Kradem fics and this idea came into my mind. Originally I was planning on having Kris outside the church being unsure of marrying Katy when his broken older self shows up and advises against it but I didn’t want Kris to leave her at the altar for some reason, so I changed it to him being unsure of proposing in the first place.
> 
> My point in this fic was the notion of not being able to change one’s fate. Like if you were fated to get hit by a bus and decided not to leave the house, then the bus would instead crash into your house. Or like in “The Time Machine” (I only seen the more recent film version and haven’t read the book yet) when the main character tries to prevent his girlfriend from being shot and she instead gets run over by a horse-drawn carriage.
> 
> In this fic the older Kris realizes that while he can’t save Adam (his true love/soul mate/other half/etc.) from dying he can prevent the heartache and time lost from the complications surrounding his marriage to Katy.
> 
> The supernatural aspect of this is unimportant within the parameters of the fic itself, but my thoughts behind it are that in losing his soul mate Kris sort of gets one chance to change something in his own life. Almost like a wish.
> 
> Whether or not they get together, or even meet in the first place, Adam is fated to die at a predestined time – just as Kris is, they just don’t sync up. As nothing he does will prevent the death, it made more sense for Kris to try change something in his own life as opposed to trying to change something in Adam’s or anyone else’s.
> 
> He could have chosen to try change anything to prevent the pain of losing the love of his life – he could have reconsidered getting divorced to be with Adam (which is actually what I envisioned had happened to the older Kris, meaning they would have had little time when they were truly together), pulling out of American Idol after he met Adam, decided against trying out in the first place before he met Adam… Instead he chose to prevent the one obstacle separating them for so long just to have more time with the one he truly loved instead of not dealing with the tremendous loss.
> 
> Also, the reason he doesn’t go back and change something again in the end is that this time he doesn’t desperately want to change something. He is at peace enough with the situation to understand that what time he’d been able to salvage was the most he could have ever hoped for given the circumstances. For all we know meeting Adam too soon could have just been too soon (they could have ended up in a situation where they wouldn’t be romantically involved ever and not fully realized their love at all or until it was too late).
> 
> It was a bit heartbreaking to write, but I was quite pleased with how the tragic romance turned out. I hope you enjoyed it, despite the sadness. And I hope the second half of it didn’t turn out sounding too stupid with all the refusing to name Kris’ love, but I really wanted to save it until the end.
> 
> …I think my author’s note was longer than my fic, LOL… oh well, sometimes the short fics/one-shots have more background story than the larger fics.
> 
> Please review.


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